1910 When Lucy and Eva discover they are the illegitimate daughters of a bigamist their safe protected lives are turned upside down. They face disgrace and poverty.

Lucy and Eva discover that their deceased father was a bigamist, leaving them illegitimate and penniless. Brought up in middle-class Edwardian England they are ill-equipped to earn a living. Then Lucy falls into the clutches of a ruthless loanshark. When she cannot pay off the loan he demands repayment in kind and will not take no for an answer.

Professional ReviewsPraise for Gwen MadocEditorial Reviews
From Booklist
Lucy Chandler knows that there will be changes now that her father has died, but she never could have imagined what actually happens to her middle-class family in Edwardian England. It turns out that her father was never legally married to her mother, enabling his first wife to take possession of their belongings, leaving her family homeless and penniless. The elder daughter, Lucy takes charge of her mother and her feckless teenage sister Eva. While she and her mother find menial employment, Eva schemes for a better life. Unfamiliar with financial matters, Lucy's mother borrows money from Stan, a ruthless loan shark. When she quickly falls in arrears, he threatens the family. Stan covets Lucy, and Eva covets the life Stan can provide for her, causing a rift in the family that threatens their very survival. Madoc gives readers an engrossing story that sheds light on the perilous lives endured by Edwardian women in a sexist society that also shuns families of limited means.